Ghosthouse - 1988

When Evil Dead came out in Europe it was titled "The House" or "La Casa".  The reason I mention this is that then of course Evil Dead II was titled The House II, and then when a few movies there tried to claim they were of the same bloodline they called themselves House!  So there is La Casa 3 through 7, and they are called this because they are all claiming they are part of the bloodline of Evil Dead.  And this movie is La Casa 3.

Obviously, this movie is nothing like Evil Dead besides being a horror movie and having some people that come back from the dead, so this is just like the Zombi series, the Demons series, etc.  Just another "series" made up of unrelated movies, which also connects to what I was saying about the "Don't" series.

Ghosthouse was directed by Black Demons and Nightmare City director Umberto Lenzi.  I kinda feel like this movie goes back to my good ol' days of watching and reviewing Italian trash-o ripoffs.  It's a good feeling.  And this movie did remind me a lot of Demons II specifically.  I don't know why per say, it does have similar feel to it though.  Well produced, decently budgeted yet still a cheap and fast movie.  The action in the movie is very nicely paced, weird enough to please both child and adult, and even a tiny bit creepy.

It's certainly not flawless, in the end of this movie it won't leave a lasting impression or anything.  But what it is, is just a fun little flick.  No complexity here.  It's like a cheap American beer.  You can rip it apart for it's lack of distinction and low production value, or you can just enjoy its simplicity and turn your brain off.  Just relax bro, don't get all bothered.

Basically you just have a killer doll movie, kind of.  There's a mansion that a bunch of random teens are exploring, and there's a creepy little girl in the basement that has an evil clown doll.  The doll is not even supposed to be a mystery, the thing has a fucking row of jagged shark teeth and looks like a pissed off taxi driver.

The clown causes all sorts of mishaps and deaths, and the deaths here are adequate.  Nothing to really pop out at you or to make you say "cool".  This movie was pretty interesting in a few ways, at least the pacing was good and the music was good.  The acting was passable and the real props and effects all were average in appearance.  I'd say this one is genuinely pretty good at times, it's just that like I said, it is the American macro-brew of movies.  But hell dude, at my BBQ I had last weekend a friend showed up with a 12 pack of Budweiser, and two of them later I wasn't complaining (for once).

This movie would be an excellent choice to get super stoned during, drinking perhaps some fine wine.  It's also great riff material, Bill Mike and Kevin tore it apart on Rifftrax, in what I'd say is their funniest video yet.  It's on Hulu, check it out.

Not a ton more to say about it, let's wrap the review with 3 stars.